Club Pro

Our club recently had a request to assign a "Club Pro." During our meeting last night we all came to the opinion that no one Really knows what a Club Pro should do for the club.

If your Club has a "Club Pro" post here with the things that person contributes to your club. Some of the things we talked about are listed below. I'm really interested to hear what the Disc Golf Communities Perception is of what a Club Pro is and what they do.

1. Puts on Clinics
2. Acts as a mentor to new players
3. Gives New players a point of contact when starting the sport
4. Gives advice on Disc usage based on playing time with newer players.

Replies to This Discussion

Those four are good points. Our local pro back in MI was also very involved in new course design as well as communicating with the local parks departments. He also organized and ran our leagues and TDed most of the local tournaments. Ocasionally he would take your $$$ if you gave him the chance.

I agree Mark. That is a lot for just one person. I think a lot of this is typically shared in a club but there does need to be one person that takes the lead. That is who I consider the "Club Pro". To TD an event doesn't mean that you are the only one running it. The same goes for leagues. It needs to be a team effort.

Mark Stephens said:

Chas that seems like a lot of things for one person to do. Coming from the person that does most of that for our club it would be best if you had 3-4 of these people so that the burden of work could be spread out. Why only have 1 person in your club doing this? Don't you think that you would have a better club if many people did this?

Multiple club pros is a good idea to divide the work however I do have one suggestion. You need to appoint people that can work with each other. I have seen a few courses where there is one pro that basically treats the course as theirs and will not work with others as far as course improvement and tournaments. Some people just seem to feel their opinion is more important than everyone elses. This can really hurt a club and push outsiders and new players away when they see the drama. Make clear everyones roles and I would say if there are 3-4 pros they should each be involved with all four of those obligations, but make sure that one guy isn't getting all of the grunt work while the other two or three are getting all of the glory.

Some good stuff here. We actually have several people who were nominated but the issue we face is some of them are touring Pro's so they are really only in town for 3 months a year. Then again we did have some local guys that don't tour also nominated and in my opinion they are all capable but the question:

NO other clubs have Pro's? Come on people, lets here what your pro's do for your clubs!

John Hodgkins said:

Some good stuff here. We actually have several people who were nominated but the issue we face is some of them are touring Pro's so they are really only in town for 3 months a year. Then again we did have some local guys that don't tour also nominated and in my opinion they are all capable but the question:

I have been a member of many clubs over the years and not one has ever had a "club pro". However, every course needs a Course Pro. The PDGA Course Directory lists the Course Pro and their contact information. This would be the person the city, park department or local newspaper will contact if they need information about the course and upcoming events. The Course Pro should be readily available to answer their questions and take visitors and newcomers through the course. At the very least the Course Pro needs to be able to direct these people to where they can find the information they need: course maps, scorecards, club contacts and upcoming event information.

Choose someone who will answer the phone (or return calls), checks their email on a regular basis, etc. It could be two people: Joe Blow will answer the calls and emails and Joe Birdie is available to play the course and show newcomers the layout and give media interviews.

If you have more than one course, you may want to consider having a separate Course Pro for each.

BTW, the Club should put on clinics with the help of ALL the club members, not just the top pros.

I agree with Discette the entire club needs to help with all four things you have listed. Part of being in a club is to participate, if you don't then what's the point. Most of the Clubs around here don't really have a "title" for "club pro" but everyone knows who the most experienced players are. Around here there is usually one person that created the club in the first place, they generally organize the tournaments, organize work days and delegate some jobs that need to be done. Some of the bigger clubs here in MI have multiple experienced players that are responsible for certain aspects of the clubs but this all varies. I would say you don't really (need) a "club pro", you need someone who is a good manager that can, and is willing to, facilitate a group of people and make everyone feel welcome. I think you need a "course pro", and a "club manager". I know club manager dosn't quite have the same ring as pro, but really more often than not, they are going to be managing things for the members of the club. But if the people are calling for a "club pro" to be highlighted as such then go for it. I think that the candidate shoud have managerial qualities though, that would be a good description for what (who) you are looking for.